Addressing the Cause-Related Marketing Paradox for Luxury Brands to Increase Prosocial Behavior and Well-Being

Abstract

Although luxury firms have come under increasing pressure to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, they have traditionally been hesitant to engage because of the CSR–luxury paradox: the values and motivations underlying luxury consumption (self-enhancement) may conflict with the values and motivations underlying prosocial behavior (self-transcendence), and thus their CSR initiatives may not only be ineffective, they may actually harm the brand. In this commentary, we discuss research on the strategies and tactics luxury brands can use to nudge luxury consumers to engage in their cause-related marketing (CRM) initiatives by aligning the values of their luxury customers with the symbolic values of their CRM offerings and thus increase the impact of the prosocial causes on societal well-being. This research supports the objectives of transformative luxury research (TLR) in integrating luxury consumption into the mission and vision of transformative consumer research (TCR).